


The Shop Around the Corner

by foureyedbeauty



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Movie AU, You've Got Mail AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-04-28 11:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5089784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foureyedbeauty/pseuds/foureyedbeauty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob Stone is trying to make an honest living by working for his father's architecture company. His job is to create a library for the community, while breaking barriers and advancing his career. Which means doing whatever it costs to finish his project. Cassandra Cillian's life starts turning upside down when her store is being put up for eviction. She tries to fight with Jacob while trying to hold onto the one constant thing in her life, her book store AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cassandra Cillian

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Librarians story so I'm trying to get the characterization right. Thank you to itsnotthatstrange for looking at this chapter for me! My grammar is atrocious so thank her for that. This chapter will be all about Cassandra and the next one will be about Jake, every chapter will be their points of view since the story is about them. This story will be a combination of both movies. The 1940's one, The Shop Around the Corner and the 1990's one, You've Got Mail. It will also be different because it's The Librarians version not the movies version :) So please read and enjoy!

The skies had become gray and murky as Cassandra Cillian walked down the busy sidewalks of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was going to get to work extra early today. It was finally November, which meant she got to decorate her store. Cassandra’s favorite time of the year was always the holidays, for not only did she get to decorate her store but she also wore very festive clothing. Christmas was her favorite, though. There were necklaces that lit up, stockings being hung by chimneys, and freshly baked holiday cookies. It always brought out the kid in her and she absolutely loved it.

November always meant that Christmas was right around the corner. It also meant fun, educational books to be read to younger children, dressing up as pilgrims, and watching Charlie Brown. Yes, Thanksgiving was just as fun to celebrate too.

The redhead tried to avoid a puddle as she walked through the rain. With her matching polka dotted rain boots and umbrella, she tried to get to her bookstore as quick as possible without ruining her fall-inspired outfit. She was not going to let the rainy weather ruin her mood, for she just knew she was getting another letter from her pen pal today.

She turned the corner when she saw Henry, the mailman, putting mail in a store’s mailbox. She was a little bummed that she didn’t meet him at her store today. Although she hated calling it her store; it would always be her mother’s store, never hers.

Cassandra grew up helping her mother and grandmother take care of their children’s book store “The Shop Around the Corner”. She started working there when she was just six years old, always trying to help people find new books to read. Cassandra would sweep and dust everywhere she could. She wanted to do whatever she could for the store. She believed the store was magical and that if she worked hard enough she could show everyone else just how magical it truly was.

But once her parents got a divorce the world seemed to turn slower than usual for her. Cassandra was fifteen when it all happened, finding out she had a brain tumor, as well as finding out her father was cheating on her mother. She instantly hated the man but he got custody of her, to her mother’s dismay, and moved to New York where she was put through many surgeries to get rid of her tumor. It wasn’t until she was twenty-one that the doctors finally were able to get it.

Cassandra felt free, as she was finally not looking over her shoulder, constantly wondering if she was going to die sooner rather than later. She instantly went to college and started working for NASA. She believed if she worked hard enough she would perfect her adult years instead of dwelling on her miserable teenage years. Life was finally going her way. She started seeing her mother more and tried to take as many trips as she could to her hometown of Tulsa as possible. It wasn’t easy, but for her mother, Cassandra would do anything.

Once the redheaded beauty turned twenty-five she got a phone call that shattered her world forever. Her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was only going to live for three more months. Cassandra quickly left her job and took care of her mother as much as she could. She started working back at her mother’s book store, as well. At first she loathed the idea of coming back to her hometown and not succeeding somewhere else but she quickly felt the magical pull she always felt in the bookstore. The smell of the books, the faces children made when they found their favorite novel, and the way the store smelled of old books. It all enchanted Cassandra.

But the doctors were right. After three months, Cassandra’s mother had died, giving her the store and everything in it. It was overwhelming at first, managing a store, but with the help of her best friend Eve and her mother’s dearest friend Jenkins, she was able to make the store as successful as her mother. It was still just as famous as it was when she was little.

Everyone from all over Oklahoma came to the store, wanting to see the decorations for the holidays, what crafts were being made that month, and, of course, storytime. Children still wanted to hear magical stories and to Cassandra that was everything. It was as if her mother was truly living on through the books and she loved it.

Cassandra’s thoughts went to a halt as she collided with the elderly man, Henry. He was wearing a mailman uniform with a thick brown coat and dark blue hat. He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, pulling his cart of mail around town.

“Miss Cassandra, is your head up in the clouds again?”

The redhead blushed as she looked down at her shoes. She always hated getting caught daydreaming. It made her feel like she was a child again.

“Just thinking about what books to display this month, Henry.” She grinned.

“You sure do know how to make a display,” the old man smiled kindly.

Cassandra started to look around to see if anyone was noticing their conversation. She then went closer the older gentleman and whispered, “Is there anything in there for me?”

Henry chuckled as he pulled a white envelope from his cart. “You mean from your secret admirer?”

Cassandra’s face turned many shades of red as she fidgeted with her grip on her umbrella.

“Henry, we are just pen pals, nothing more,” she stated as she quickly grabbed her letter.

“Alright, Miss Cassandra, you know more than I do,” he said while tipping his hat to her.

Cassandra sighed as she put the envelope into her pocket, scolding herself that she wasn’t going to read it until she done with work for the day.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Henry. I must get going to the store. Tell your wife I said hi and don’t stay out too long in the rain or you’ll catch a cold!” the redhead ordered as she walked past the elderly mailman.

“Yes ma’am!” he yelled, “and have a wonderful day!”

She grinned as she looked down at the watch on her wrist. She was running late. How did that happen? Cassandra started walking faster as she clutched her letter in her pocket and held on to her umbrella tightly.

She really wanted this day to be over. All she wanted to do was go home, drink some tea, and read her letter. She wanted to relax and unwind, even though it was a Monday. These letters drove her crazy. She stopped acting like herself and acted like a hopeless romantic. Well, more of a hopeless romantic than she already was.

After all, Cassandra hadn’t really wanted a pen pal. It was old fashioned and everyone knew everyone where she lived.

So why get a pen pal?

“Because you don’t talk to anyone,” her best friend Eve had told her. “You’ll randomly be set with someone in Oklahoma, so you most likely won’t know who the person is. Just do it. Have fun and do something different for once in your life!”

So the redhead took a deep breath and signed up online, which was ironic to her but she did it, and by the next week she had gotten a letter from an anonymous person.

They both refused to put anything personal in the letters and instead talked about traveling and literature. Her pen pal went by the name Ponyboy, from his favorite childhood book. She went by Elizabeth Bennet.

They constantly wrote to each other. Every chance she got, she tried to ask him many questions, What’s your dream vacation, favorite art piece, favorite color? Anything to get a letter from her friend. She knew her pen pal was a guy who was in his thirties, for she wanted someone who would be around her age, since she was thirty herself. She never knew she would get so attached to the letters, but she saved every one, waiting patiently for the next one. It had only been four months since they started to write to each other, but it seemed much longer than that to Cassandra.

She turned another corner to see her store at the end of the road. It was a little hole in the wall with a yellow door and a brass knocker. The bookstore had wide glass windows with curtains hanging to the side to make the store feel more homey. There were paper leaves taped to the window, making it look like they were falling onto the books that were being displayed. Cassandra admired them all until her assistant manager poked her head through the display case.

“Eve!” Cassandra gasped. “What are you doing? You scared me!”

“It’s about damn time you got here,” Eve grinned. “Jenkins is about to yell at some customers.”

She opened the door for Cassandra as she tried to do her best impersonation of their financial wizard, as she called him.

“I don’t know how much these books are, ask the tall beast over there! No, not the stuffed animal, the giant woman at the cash register! I hate kids! Blah, blah, blah.”

Cassandra grinned as she walked through the door, inhaling the smell of books. Oh, how she loved the smell of books.

“He’s not that bad.”

“He mumbled about brainless storytelling and went to the back of the store where he slammed the office door shut, leaving me here with pukey Peter and his mother.”

“Be nice,” Cassie hissed as she put on her radiant smile for the customers. “I’ll be with you all in a moment.”

Eve Baird, the woman who had known Cassandra since college, her closest friend and confidant, eyed her curiously.

“You’re happy. Did Mr. Ponyboy write you back?”

“Shh!”

“What?”

Cassandra went to the counter where their cash register sat, which was to the right of the door. Behind the counter was a wall filled with first edition novels marked with high prices. There were also cabinets at the bottom to hold wrapping paper and bags to put purchased books in for the customers. She turned around and bent down to open one of the cabinets to put her belongings away and slipped off her coat, where the letter was poking out of one of the pockets.

“Oh, ho, ho!” Eve said quietly as she grabbed the letter.

“Eve, no,” Cassandra hissed.

“Oh, please can I open it?” she begged. “You never let me see them.”

“Because they’re private.” Cassandra jumped, trying to grab the letter from Eve’s grasp.  
“Jenkins is right, you’re huge!”

Eve gasped as she opened the letter. “I’m hurt.”

Cassandra sighed in defeat as she watched her best friend open the envelope. She tried her hardest to make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just a pen pal, nothing more. Why make it something when it was simply nothing?

Eve looked at Cassandra for permission and got the okay to further open the letter.

“Dear Ms Elizabeth... Oh, Cassie, is your name Elizabeth Bennet? Lame.”

“I already told you that,” she huffed and crossed her arms. She looked around the store and saw that Peter and his mother were looking for what appeared to be dinosaur books.

“Mrs. Carter, the dinosaur books are in the back corner with the table and chairs.”

The woman smiled and nodded as she practically dragged her son to the back of the store.

Cassandra sighed as she looked up and realized that her friend was reading the letter silently.

“Hey!” the redhead scolded, hitting her blonde friend.

“Oh, he’s into you,” Eve commented. “He said he picked up the book Pride and Prejudice and was on chapter four. That’s obviously a lie. I doubt cowboy made it to page two.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. What else is in there?” Cassie tried to ask without sounding too interested. She failed.

“Oh, I would bet money that all that’s left is his rant on five dollar coffees. It’s odd. Oh, he did say his favorite time outside is when the sky is dark and the stars illuminate it, like candles. Something like that.” Eve gagged as she gave the letter to her best friend.“I feel like I just intruded on something intimate. Gross.”

“Oh, stop. He’s poetic. He loves poetry. I’m sure it’s more poetic than what you said.”

“Of course it is.” Eve rolled her eyes, “I’m gonna do my job, you might want to do that too.”

Cassandra stuck out her tongue as she watched her friend leave her. She skimmed through the letter and started to grin instantly as she read the words:

_Dear Ms Elizabeth Bennet…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Jacob's point of view. And, again, thank you so much to itsnotthatstrange for editing this for me!

“Ah, dammit,” Jacob Stone muttered as he pulled on his white collared shirt. He clutched his styrofoam coffee cup and tried to breath evenly. He hated acting like someone he wasn’t.

Looking down at his outfit, Jacob sighed. He felt like he was in some sort of overpriced monkey suit. Why do people even wear these to look professional? They just look like they’re trying to brag about their money. Overpriced shoes and ties just made him feel more like a clown. Don’t even get him started on Rolex watches…

_Why do people have to spend so much money on practical things? Like coffee, why spend five dollars for a simple cup of coffee? My grandmother makes the best cup of joe I’ve ever had and it only cost her two dollars to make. Nowadays coffee has become so complicated I don’t think people would know what an actual cup of coffee tasted like even if they took a sip of it. All people care about now are caramel coffee slushies…but they are pretty good. So I've been told…_

Stone grinned as he looked at the cup in his hand and thought about the letter he previously mailed the day before. He finally found someone who he could talk to about anything with. He found a friend where he just played twenty questions with all the time. Not caring how much the person makes or where they went to college, just simple fun questions.

It was humiliating to think about how he even got a pen pal, but he had to admit, his assistant did something nice for him for once instead of trying to humiliate him, which wasn't his goal.

It was a month after Jacob’s birthday and his mother was constantly calling about when she was going to meet his girlfriend Mabel. His dearest friends had met her so why wasn’t she going to meet her? After all they had been dating for half a year, surely his mother should meet the woman?

But Stone always felt uneasy when it came to his personal life and his family life. It was hard for anyone to understand except his best friend Flynn, whose family life was more messed up than his own.

Once Jake got older and went to college, he found a side of himself that he could never show his family. An intellectual side that he yearned to perfect. After he found his passion for art he just wanted to study that and that alone, but his father had different plans, plans that Jake already knew but he held out hope that his father would see things his way instead.

Of course his father didn’t.

Stone’s Architecture Company or SAC was a well know firm all throughout the state of Oklahoma. In fact his father was trying to expand their business all the way out to Texas, Florida, and even Georgia.

“Good ol’ country buildings,” he would say. “Good, solid foundation to last a lifetime.”

Instead of Jacob’s father seeing it his way, his father’s architecture company refused to see it any way but the coward’s way out.

“You knew from the day you went to public school you were going to work here!” his father yelled.

“But I want to learn about art! I’ll try and minor in architecture, I promise!”

“How can you be so blind, don’t you get it boy? I thought I raised you better than this, architecture is art that you live in!”

As soon as his father yelled that to Jacob’s face, he realized his dream was a lost cause. He became distant with his family, only seeing them on the holidays. Never on birthdays; he would send a card but that was it.

Jacob Stone got a degree in architecture and minored in art history. His father was pleased in that because having an art minor would help him bring more customers in.

And he did.

He helped bring SAC to a higher standard in architecture. Not only were the buildings sturdy but they also told a story, in the brick walls, stone columns, and even beautiful archways.

Jacob liked to work more on the field instead of typing up blueprints in the office. He loved being out and watching his creations come to life, but his father had different plans. Especially when he had a big idea that made him go to the head of SAC to pitch. He knew he would get the big stamp of approval, but he hated going to the head buildings. High and mighty people who acted like robots during the day. It creeped him out.

Stone entered the main building of the architecture firm. He sighed as he tried to gather his thoughts on what to say about his project. He dreaded talking to the big wigs about his brilliant plan. Especially since it was Mabel’s plan, not his.

She convinced him that if the company built a large building, somewhere where the population is showing growth in, then they could build a library that stored Oklahoma’s history while letting others learn on their own about literature, art, math, and sciences. Putting top technological devices in the building to help the community become educated without spending a lot of money. Especially people who cannot afford a higher education.

Of course Jacob instantly loved the idea. After he became a partner to his father’s company, Mabel convinced him to take night classes and finish his degree in art history. He spent most of his nights after work in a library. And if he could give people the proper tools to accomplish their dreams, then he was all for it.

He truly admired his girlfriend. She was a tough woman who refused to let anyone bring her down. Mabel was a bulldozer, wanting to accomplish anything she set her mind to. She was kind, intelligent, and knew what she wanted. Unfortunately, it scared Jacob sometimes. He wondered if he was a goal she was trying to accomplish, instead of wanting to be in a relationship that could grow into something more.

Jacob shook his head from his thoughts as his phone buzzed. His assistant Ezekiel loved to text him if he knew he was going to be in the office, which was rare.

_“Your love letter is sitting on your desk, Ponyboy.”_

Stone gritted his teeth as he looked at the message. He hated that his assistant knew about his pen pal, especially because that assistant was Ezekiel Jones.

It was all a prank to him, setting Jacob up on the website. Ezekiel thought it was so funny how ironic it was to sign up online to get a pen pal. And since he heard his boss complain about his family wanting to meet Mabel, he assumed Jacob was going to break up with the woman anyway. Jone’s philosophy: if a woman is conflicting in your life, leave her. If money is conflicting in your life, get more money. It doesn’t matter how, just get more money.

It was a dumb philosophy that Jacob never understood but he constantly heard about it, especially when Mabel was brought up in a conversation. It didn’t matter what conversation, everything was about money to Ezekiel and it drove Stone insane.

He was convinced that he had seen Ezekiel’s face on the news a couple time when it came to robbing major companies but Jacob always believed he was just being paranoid because he hated his assistant so much.

Regardless of being a thief or not, Ezekiel decided to have some fun and signed his boss up. He put all his qualifications in and voila! He found a match.

“It’s like old people’s version of match.com!” he exclaimed, “Which is why it’s perfect for you!”

“But I have a girlfriend,” Jacob said, irritated. “You’ve met her a bunch of times.”

“Yeah, but this is more fun because you hate it,” he grinned. “Come on just read the letter. What’s the worst it could have in there?”

And Jacob read it. Then replied to it. Then started getting more mail and before he knew it he was creating a relationship with someone.

He felt guilty when he would flirt with his pen pal but it wouldn’t be for long since he knew nothing about the woman. All he knew about her was she loved books, science, and green tea. Not enough to make Mabel jealous.

 _“Stay out of my office when I’m not there, and stop texting me! It’s unprofessional to text your boss.”_ Jacob texted.

He quickly maneuvered his way through the maze of the building, hopping into elevators, avoiding Mrs. Weatherly the gossip queen, and finally heading up to the top of the building to meet with the board of the company to discuss his next project.

Stone looked down as he felt his phone vibrate again. _“Oh yeah, sure, when you’re sick and want me to get you soup that’s fine, text away. But now, it’s unprofessional.”_

Jacob gripped his cup as he headed toward his father’s office until he felt his phone vibrate again.

_“Oh yeah, you got a fax early today saying no need for a meeting. They already approved and are sending evacuation notices to the building managers somewhere in Tulsa.”_

“What?” Jacob said aloud staring at his phone.

He quickly turned around and headed to the elevator. He may be a partner of SAC but his office was a floor lower than his father’s.

As soon as he got off the elevator he marched straight to his assistant’s desk where he found not only Ezekiel, his best friend Flynn Carson.

“Told ya he’d flip,” Ezekiel muttered. “You owe me ten bucks.”

Flynn sighed as he started fumbling through his pockets for money, any kind of money.

“Of course you don’t have any money on you,” Ezekiel accused. “I should have known! Never bet with a man whose mind is as flighty as his life.”

“My life isn’t flighty!” Flynn scoffed, “I just don’t have time to worry about the small things, like money.”

“Money is life!” Ezekiel shouted. “How could you say such a thing?”

Jacob cleared his throat, having had enough of their conversation. “Are you two finished?”

He instantly looked at his assistant waiting for a response, but never got one. He was too depressed that he had not made ten bucks off of Flynn.

“Where’s the fax?” he asked as politely as he could.

“On your desk next to that love letter from the phantom woman,” Ezekiel mumbled.

“Have you still not met her?” Flynn asked.

“No,” Stone replied, “I’m a little busy trying to finish projects and not murder my assistant who isn’t suppose to even go into my office when I’m not there.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You’re welcome,” said assistant replied, ignoring his boss while staring at the computer screen in front of him.

Jacob sighed and shook his head, walking passed Ezekiel’s desk and into his own office. Once Flynn followed him in, Jacob shut the door and went straight to his desk putting down his styrofoam cup and shifting through the papers on his desk.

“So what do you want?” Jacob asked while looking at the fax.

It seemed to be a letter from his father giving him the amount of money he asked for and also okaying everything else for his project to go smoothly. He couldn’t figure out the catch until he read that his father’s ‘people’ had picked the place to put the library. Somewhere in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it seemed they were going to have to tear down a couple mom and pop shops. Jacob sighed. He hated making people jobless, but if it meant others could further their education then he was okay with making a couple people out of a job.

“That’s a damn long fax,” he muttered as he picked up his cup to sip on it.

“Hmm?” Flynn asked.

“Oh, I forgot you were here,” Stone said sheepishly. “You never answered why you were here.”

“I need a favor from you.”

“I figured.”

“I took Sarah and Tommy out last week for a fun family get together, remember?”

Stone started to smile softly as he thought about his dearest friend’s family. He’d never forget Flynn coming up to him saying he couldn’t hang out cause his grandfather’s girlfriend was going to have a baby. It terrified Jacob knowing Flynn’s grandfather was in his sixties. Who knew he still had it going on?

However his daughter, Sarah, was a sweet girl who was turning into an intelligent eight year old. Especially with a nephew like Flynn, who was constantly out and about traveling to different places to study new ancient artifacts or to simply travel. The man couldn’t sit still, which was why Stone was never surprised when he popped into his office randomly. He started getting used to random visits from his friend.

For a while he believed that Flynn only came to visit if his family was having more babies. He remembered finding Flynn in his office pacing after he had found out his father had knocked some poor woman up as well and he was going to have a sibling. But once he calmed down he helped his father out as much as he could while traveling. Flynn adored his younger brother Tommy. He was a playful little boy with the imagination of his oldest brother.

Family get togethers were never boring in the Carsen house hold.

Stone loved each child with all his heart. They were the kids he always thought he would have, but at this rate never would. He had tried talking to Mabel about kids, but she was too busy wanting to travel the world instead of settling down with a family. He acted like that was okay but inside he wondered how long their relationship was going to last. Should he just stick it out with her or not?

“Yes, I vaguely remember you telling me that,” Jacob nodded.

“Well, since they live in Tulsa I went there and took them to some bookstore where they love to have story time. It was charming, lots of books for children and the owner looked like she came out of a fairytale herself.” Flynn explained.

“So?” Jacob asked not even looking up at his friend.

“So, I met a blonde woman there who was into me and I didn’t get her number. Now I can’t go back there anytime soon because I’m going to Africa to study-”

“You want me to get this woman’s number for you?” Jacob asked finally looking up from his work to see Flynn’s face.

“Yes!” Flynn exclaimed, “Her name is Eve and she will know exactly who I am. Sarah and Tommy can go with you since you’re lonely and don’t like going to things alone.”

“I-”

“No, no, don’t thank me yet, here’s the good part. I read the fax your father sent you this morning-”

“Flynn...”

“I know, but it was there and coincidently the bookstore is one of the buildings you will be knocking down!” he said happily. “So I’m helping you out, scope out the competition and see if they will protest and make your life harder. See, the plan works for you and me!”

Jacob was speechless. He hadn’t thought about if the stores would protest. He groaned as he thought more about it. Why did he not think about that? Why was his mind so swept up in the thought of the library that he completely forgot about things backfiring on him?

Jacob sighed as he tried to process everything. “If I go, where would I meet up with the hooligans?”

Flynn grinned as he shot up from his seat, “My father’s house, just get there at eleven AM. They will be thrilled to see Uncle Jacob.”

“How am I an uncle to your aunt? And if I’m an uncle to Tommy wouldn’t I be an uncle to you too?” Stone grinned.

Right before Flynn was about to answer, there was a knock at the door.

“Knock, knock,” Mabel smiled as she entered the room.

“Hi, sweetie,” Jacob grinned as he leaned over his desk to kiss his girlfriend good morning.

“Hello,” she smiled as she sat on the edge of his desk.

Jacob turned his head away from his girlfriend to talk to Flynn but he was gone.

“Where did Flynn go?”

Mabel rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He always leaves like that, why are you so surprised?”

Jacob shook his head from his thoughts and smiled up at the lady in front of him. “How are you?”

“Great!” she smiled. “Didn’t you hear, the library is a go!”

Jacob chuckled as he looked at his smiling girlfriend. “Yeah, I got the fax.”

“Yes, they were going to tell you, but since I work for one of the big wigs you’re always complaining about I convinced him to email your father to just send you a fax since you’re oh so busy,” she grinned.

Jacob beamed as he looked at Mabel. It was moments like this that he realized how lucky he was to have a girlfriend like her.

“Yeah, but a couple businesses are going to be gone because of me,” he said, sighing.

“Yes, but think of all the people you will be helping in the long run!” she exclaimed. “Sometimes you have to knock a couple people down to get to the top. Jacob, can you imagine where this will take you in your career? If this gets the right kind of publicity you could go so far.”

Jacob looked at her alarmed. He didn’t want to get to the top, he wanted to help others learn with tools he didn’t have. He wanted to educate people, not advance in his career.

“Well, I’ve got to go,” Mabel said as she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. She grabbed his cup off the desk, mentioned a thank you, and left his office.

Jacob was confused and flustered. He looked down at his letter from his pen pal when he realized that he needed to let her know that he had a girlfriend. He didn’t want to lead her on in any way. They were friends. Nothing more.

He sat at his desk, caught up in his thoughts, until he heard Mabel in the hallway.

“Gross! I hate green tea! Who drinks stuff like this?”

Jacob grinned as he started to read his letter from his friend.

_My Dearest Friend Ponyboy…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be Cassandra getting a not so pleasant letter in the mail


	3. Eviction Notice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may seem like a filler chapter but it needs to be the third chapter for obvious reasons. If they are not obvious to you, it's cause you needs to see why Cassandra is so attached to the store and her mom. Again, thanks to itsnotthatstrange for looking it over. Having someone look these chapters over is so amazing!

“We are being evicted?” Cassandra squeaked.

She was trying to take a relaxing lunch break with her good friend Jenkins in the back of the store. She loved going back to Jenkins office/kitchen. It looked exactly the same as when her mother decorated it when she was a little girl: a homely checkered sofa against the warm maroon walls and a worn out wooden table across from the sofa with plastic chairs. An old eighties fridge that was still working was next to Jenkins’s desk, in case you were crunching numbers and needed a little snack. But of course Jenkins had his own personal stash of expensive peanuts, walnuts, and other assorted nuts in his desk drawers. He thought he was being clever at hiding them but Cassandra knew about it.

Cassandra quietly took out her purple little lunch box. She slowly took out each color coded tupperware container that was filled with grapes, apples, and strawberries. She placed them on the table in order of what she was going to eat first to last. She started munching on her grapes slowly when a thought came to her head.

“But my mother gave me this store. It’s mine, under my name and everything.”

“You still pay property taxes, ergo the state can still evict you for other projects they seem to deem suitable for this land, sadly,” Jenkins stated. He got up from his desk to put the eviction notice on the table looking anywhere but Cassandra’s face.

The redheaded beauty stared at the piece of paper with no emotion visible on her face. However, her emotions were going haywire inside her mind. She was trying to blink back tears when a hand was placed upon her shoulder and a salad was shoved into her face.

She smiled at the ranch smiley face in her salad. Eve had surprised her with lunch.

“We will figure this out. We can get some kind of petition going and win this place back. May I remind you that I was in the military for a couple years?” Eve said while sitting next to Cassandra. “We can win this thing.”

“Thank you for _my_ lunch, Eve,” Jenkins said sarcastically while shuffling through more papers on his desk.

“Maybe if you were a little bit nice to me I might think about getting you a box of assorted peanuts.”

Jenkins scoffed, “ _Assorted peanuts_. If they are not honey glazed walnuts then forget it, Ms. Baird.”

Eve wrinkled her nose and looked away from the older man in confusion, “With pleasure.”

Cassandra was so busy trying to figure out all these problems in her head she started mumbling math equations under her breath.

“Wait a minute,” Cassandra stopped mid thought. “You only trained for two years and then once you got out in the field you accidentally shot yourself in the foot. How is that gonna help get this store back? I mean it did make you realize teaching was more your style and it is! You teach wonderfully, but I don’t know what to do and -,” Cassandra stopped for a deep breath. “I need to go somewhere.”

The room was dead silent. No one spoke a word until a piercing laughter shot through the room.

“They told me the gun wasn’t loaded!” Eve declared over Jenkin’s laughter. “You promised you’d never tell,” Eve yelled at Cassandra. The blonde sighed as she watched her best friend go, she knew where she was going but was still pissed off. Jenkins was going to be making fun of her for a long time.

She sighed as she got out of her seat and mumbled that she wasn’t hungry anymore. Eve could fight Jenkins, but he was now on the floor laughing so hard he couldn’t finish a full sentence without cackling.

“I’m going back to work!” She yelled.

“Don’t do anything too strenuous on your feet!” Jenkins hollered. “Oh, thank you, Cassandra,” the old man said, finally starting to calm down. He wiped the tears that had fallen from his eyes and sighed. “You just made this day more bearable.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cassandra walked through the crunchy leaves as she entered the cemetery that her mother’s grave was in. She walked passed many tombstones and breathed in the cold air as she started mumbling math equations again.

Whenever Cassandra started to realize certain things were out of her control she did math, or she’d go see her mother. Sometimes she did both.

She walked the path from memory, remembering coming here often once her mother had died. The redhead clutched her golden locket that hung around her neck tightly. It had a picture of her mother in it. Jenkins had given it to her during her mother’s memorial. He had told her that her mother had always lit up a room wherever she was and had this essence about her that made her seem more elegant than anyone around her. He gave her the golden locket and said softly “Like a golden locket, it doesn’t seem like much, but if you look closely it looks more elegant than any other necklace.”

Cassandra stood in front of her mother’s grave and fell to her knees. Her hands instantly went to her face as she let out a muffled cry.

“Oh, mommy,” she gasped. “I feel like I’m losing you all over again. How is it that I worked for NASA but I can’t handle a children’s book store?”

The redhead started wiping her eyes and sighed. “Well, it’s not like we are losing money. We are actually fine, but apparently the state wants to put a library where the store is.” She slowly got up from her knees and started to pace.

“Which is great, libraries are wonderful, especially for the community around here, but I can’t lose this store. I can’t lose you again. But what if the community needs it more than my silly fantasy of your essence still living in the store? Am I overreacting? Is this for the best?” She took a crushed lilly from her pocket and placed it over the grass surrounding the tombstone.

“I was so busy thinking that I didn’t have time to get you a proper bouquet,” she sniffled. “But don’t worry, next time I come back I’ll get you a proper bouquet that you deserve.”

Cassandra smiled softly at the words on her mother’s tombstone: Jessica Cillian, loving daughter and mother.

“You truly were,” she whispered, “I just wished dad hadn’t taken me away from you,” she sighed. “I’ll never trust people with money; they’re vindictive and cruel.”

Cassandra had met too many of those people in New York, especially before her father had divorced her mother. That’s how he had gotten custody. He had paid off the judge and Cassandra was furious, still was. No one should take a child away from their mother, especially when they just found out they had a brain tumor.

“But it was in the past, and today is the future,” her mother would always say. “And you’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

Cassandra groaned. Today was officially a terrible day. She often tried to look at every aspect of her day in some optimistic way but she couldn’t anymore, at least not today.

She started her day meeting Henry the mailman, and him giving her another letter. She grinned at it and instantly tore it open. After his last letter about coffee and his favorite time of the day, she had asked him about his favorite foods. She just knew he was a chicken and potatoes kind of guy and she wanted to find out if he really was.

However, when she started reading the letter, her face fell.

He had a girlfriend.

But why did this bother her? They had made it clear they were doing this because they liked the old fashion way of making friends. Friends. That’s what they were, nothing else. She also found out she had been wrong. His favorite meal was his mama’s homemade meatloaf. He did say he always ate them with mashed potatoes, but still, she was wrong. And he had a girlfriend.

_Her favorite foods are named weird like zoodles, which is zucchini noodles and lo mein. I don’t care how fancy the word sounds, they look like noodles to me_

She wiped her face one last time and realized two things: She was going to fight for her store and find herself a boyfriend. She wanted to lean on someone for support and she couldn’t date Eve. They were close but not that close.

“I will fight for you, mom. Everything is going to be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Jacob and Cassie finally meet and Eve has no idea who Flynn is ;)


	4. Meeting each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took longer than it should have. I'm not really that happy about the way it is written but it needs to be put out there. The chapter may seemed a little rushed and I'm sorry for that. I tried. However I tried to explain the situation regarding the business side of the story and yes I pulled a lot of it out of thin air so please let me know if it doesn't make sense or if I need to change something. Again, thanks for itsnotthatstrange for reading over this chapter!!

Jacob Stone’s day had not been going as well as he wanted it to. He picked up the kids and found out Sarah and Tommy were living at Flynn’s father’s house until their mothers got custody of the two of them. Apparently their parents marriages didn’t last long, which didn’t shock Jacob at all.

Woman in their late twenties rarely stayed with men in their early-to-late seventies. It seemed like a known fact.

Jacob bundled them up in scarves and jackets, although it wasn't that chilly for a November day in Oklahoma. The two children whined and complained about the itchy scarves while walking around downtown Tulsa. He couldn’t remember many days that the kids got on his nerves but today was definitely one of them. Especially since he had to scope out the children’s bookstore to see how far along their protesting was.

It had only been one week since the eviction letters went through and the bookstore was the only one fighting back. He was constantly getting phone calls from corporate asking him how he was going to pull the plug on this place since they got the okay to demolish that part of downtown.

“But they have a right to protest,” Jacob would argue. “If they want to petition for us to leave the bookstore alone than they can.”

“Of course you have to let them protest,” his father yelled. “You didn't sign the damn papers like you were suppose to and now they have wiggle room to protest and they are! Our schedule to demolish the buildings are having to be pushed back because of your mishap!”

“But it’s not my fault, the fax said that you had already signed the papers!”

“No, all that fax said was for you to put your big stamp of approval on the plan, which you didn’t do!”

“But you put out the eviction letters, how was I supposed to know I needed to go to the state capital to actually get the stamp of approval? You said you had that taken care of!”

“Do not blame this on my people, son.”

Jacob’s mouth dropped. “I am your people! And I can’t make this problem stop.”

“Then figure out a way to make them stop!” his father ordered.

His father told him that he didn’t want to argue about the conflict but once his father found out how much money that was being put into the project, he got down right mad. He told Jacob that he believed in his project and what was best for the community but with both men screwing up their part of the job, and both men being stubborn, neither was going to apologize.

Which led to Jacob’s father giving him an ultimatum; have the bookstore in their custody by the end of the month or else he was off the project. Jacob hated conflict. He tried to shrug everything off like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but he couldn’t do it now.

“Everyone makes mistakes. We knew this project wasn't going to be easy to finish,” Mabel had told him. “Just pretend it’s like the Godfather, or some other old gangster movie you’ve made me watch. It’s business, it’s not personal, and something to do with mattresses.”

Jacob chuckled as he thought about his girlfriend trying to give him advice to ease his consciousness, but it didn’t work. It needed to but it didn’t. He was so consumed by his thoughts on trying to get the store that for the rest of that week he was obsessed with work. How to make the library bigger and better and how to demolish all the buildings he needed to before the new year. He was starting to turn into one of those crazy workaholics. Even on his day off with the kids, he completely forgot to enjoy the day and was too busy thinking. He ignored their pleas for ice cream and restroom breaks and found out the hard way when a little boy says he has to go to the bathroom he really means he has to go that minute!

It wasn’t until Flynn called him that he remembered about talking to Eve. She was tall, Jacob thought, and blonde…?

He had been so consumed with work he forgot about the details Flynn gave him about Eve. Of course he told Flynn on the phone he remembered everything and was on it, but in reality he wasn’t even close to being on it.

So he went to the cute little bookstore and Flynn had been right, the store was charming. He looked around and saw kids of all ages coming around to read or even do their homework. Jacob was surprised. Who did homework on a Saturday?

The windows displayed a fall scene with books added for decoration. Lights were lit all around the rim of the windows pleasing the eye to further go into the store. Jacob looked around to see where Tommy and Sarah ran off to but looking through the window he had found them already in the store.

“Hello, sir,” a voice said from behind. “Would you mind if I took some of your time to ask you about a petition we are trying to-”

“You’re doing it wrong,” said an older man with a bowtie on. He instantly came over with a clipboard.

“You are supposed to politely ask the newcomer how they are, what brings them to this neck of the woods, AND THEN you ask if you can take some of their time away from them,” he insisted. “You don’t just bombard people with your military attitude. It can scare people.”

“If only it scared you!” she yelled.

Jacob looked alarmed. These two people were making quite a scene outside, so much so that passersby were glancing at them with disapproved looks. Standing by the door, Jacob glanced inside, spotting Flynn’s relatives and realizing why he was there in the first place. He opened his mouth to speak, but a redheaded woman was busting through the doors and immediately grabbed his attention.

“What on earth are you guys doing-“ the redhead tripped on the entrance of the store and started falling to the ground. Instinct went through Jacob’s body as he grabbed her elbow and wrapped his other arm around her waist.

“Easy there,” he said softly as he memorized the way the sun cast down on her hair. The woman looked up shocked as her blue eyes widened.

“Thank you,” she said softly trying to figure who the mysterious man was. With his hair ruffled and his eyes so blue, it distracted the woman more than she thought was necessary.

The two were both staring at each other but only for a brief moment before she whipped her head around, with Jacob’s hands still wrapped around her, neither of them seemed to notice.

But their audience did.

“Why are you two causing a ruckus outside?” the redhead asked, trying to find her voice again.

The blonde woman arched an eyebrow smirking while the older man just rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Youths.”

“It’s Jenkins’ fault. He won’t let me have a chance to get signatures,” the blonde woman stated.

“That’s because you do not know how to interact with people,” Jenkins, Jacob thought, said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, and you do?”

The redheaded woman instantly put her hand up to silence the two. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“We have customers inside. Please pick one of you to stay out here and the other one to come inside. Storytime is in twenty minutes.”

She turned to go inside until she realized she was still in Jacob’s arms. The woman instantly blushed and mumbled a sorry.

“No, I’m sorry. I haven’t been myself all day.” Jacob said while opening the door. He completely forgot about talking to the blonde one about the petition.

She smiled at him while walking through the store. “It’s the weekend, busiest and most hectic time of the week. I get it.”

Jacob was about to introduce himself when Tommy ran up to him. “Look what I found, Uncle Jake. This book is a pop up book about pyramids!”

Jacob chuckled as he bent down to look at Tommy and his book better. “Well, look at that,” he whistled, “that right there is a book.” He watched the boy open it up to find giant paper pyramids on each page.

“Sarah read it to me and she said that right here,” he flipped a couple pages to find his page, “talks about cats!” Tommy grinned, quite satisfied with his discovery.

“Well, how about that, it looks like you picked out a good book.” Realization dawned on Jake as he got up.

“Did you pick this book out for yourself or for your big brother?” Jacob asked, looking down at the little boy. Tommy sheepishly shook his head back and forth, “Flynn is reading to me about Egypt and I want to show him about the cats!”

“Wow,” a voice said next to Jacob, “your brother must be really smart.”

“He is!” Tommy exclaimed. “He goes all around the world to get me presents!”

“No, he doesn’t!” Sarah said stomping over to the group of people. “He’s an archaeologist, which means he looks at rocks. Isn’t that right, Uncle Jake?”

Jacob shuffled his feet from side to side scratching his neck nervously. “Uh…kind of?”

He was at a loss for words because he honestly didn’t know what Flynn did. Yeah he told everyone that he was an archaeologist, but Jacob always thought there was more to that job than what Flynn said.

“Well, don’t you have an intuitive family,” the red headed woman exclaimed.

Jacob whipped around and noticed, again, how lovely she looked. With her hair perfectly curled and her dress perfectly color coded for fall, she seemed like a fairytale princess. After thinking those thoughts Jacob shook his head and realized he had been listening to the movie the kids were watching in his car when they were driving over here.

“But Uncle Jake isn’t really our uncle,” Sarah said, grinning up at Jacob.

“He isn’t?”

“Uh, no, I’m not,” Jacob stammered, feeling unusually nervous. “I’m good friends with the archaeologist.”

“That’s my nephew,” Sarah beamed, walking away to look at more books.

“I’m confused, so he is the archaeologist's brother and she is his aunt?” The beautiful red haired woman asked.

“It’s complicated,” Jacob chuckled. “Alright, you two, it’s time to go!”

The kids complained and whined softly as they gathered all of their books. Jacob had told them they could pick out three if they wanted to.

Once they got up to check out, they put all their books up on the counter, hearing the beeping of the scanner. Jacob was deep in his thoughts, realizing he was trying to put this poor girl out of business.

“My name is Cassandra, by the way, but my friends call me Cassie,” the woman said, smiling. Jacob looked up at the girl again and grinned. _Cassie_. That suited her.

He was right about to introduce himself when the door burst open with the two people he had met earlier. The blonde glaring lady and the bow tie guy. Jacob knew they had names, but he forgot instantly.

“Are you calling me a liar, Ms. Baird?” the old man yelled.

“Well, I’m not saying you’re being honest right now! Cassie, listen to him and tell him he’s nuts!” the blonde said, walking over to the checkout counter.

Jacob glanced at Cassandra and instantly took a step back. Her face had turned a few shades of red and looked visibly upset. However, she was as silent as a mouse. But it seemed the two people who were arguing around her payed no attention to it.

“I heard from a very reliable source that someone from that Stone company is coming to spy on us and see how far we had gotten with our petition.”

“And who was your reliable source? Someone from your Tuesday bingo group?! Cassie thi-”

Cassandra put a hand up in front of the two of them quickly and hissed, “I am clearly with a customer right now, so if you two would please go get ready for storytime I’d greatly appreciate it.”

Jacob thought steam was about to come out of her ears. The woman was mad but it seemed the two co-workers understood the situation and immediately walked away, muttering an apology.

She sighed and in an instant was back to smiling beautifully up at Jacob. “Sorry about that. We are just not ourselves since we got the eviction notice. Everyone is coping with it differently, some doing better than others. And others are accusing people of spying.”

Jacob chuckled nervously glancing around the store for Tommy and Sarah. He needed to get out of there fast. “Sorry to hear about that,” he said honestly.

As he paid for the books the two kids came over saying their goodbyes to Cassandra. She came around the counter and hugged them goodbye. Jacob was surprised how easily the kids took to her. They had only been there for maybe an hour and they loved her. He made a mental note to call Mabel to give him another pep talk about the project. This woman in front of him didn’t deserve her business being shut down. This job was too perfect for her.

The kids finally let go of her and started walking toward the door when Cassie said, “I never got your name, archaeologist's best friend.”  
She grinned.

Jacob couldn’t help but grin right back at her. Her smile was too infectious. “Jake. Just call me Jake.”

Her grin turned into a full-on smile. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Jake.”

The kids were already out the door, waiting for him by the display window, but Jacob was still inside. He was sure they looked ridiculous standing in the store smiling at each other. He shook his head out of his thoughts and replied, “It was nice meeting you too, Cassandra.”

With that, he tore his gaze off of the red-haired beauty and walked out of the store. It wasn’t until later that night when he was getting ready for bed that he realized that he forgot to ask about Eve’s number for Flynn.

He groaned. He’d just have to bribe Ezekiel to do it tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Ezekiel and Baird have lovely banter :)


End file.
